Snarl - TF Universe - Figure

From a line that promises only a brief snippet of a story line, no bios, no tech specs, and no new molds whatsoever comes Transformers universe Snarl. He's traded in his technorganic blue coat for a more exciting color scheme and if you're lucky, he comes with a CD-ROM chock-full of stuff more exciting than the entire TFU line.

Packaging

Tech Specs
Since many Transformers these days are no longer deserving of bios and tech specs, I've taken the liberty to use Beast Machines Snarl's and tweak it to fit the new line.

As a strategic genius, Snarl is a critical component of the Autobot command. Has the uncanny ability to sense his opponent's weaknesses and exploit them to Autobot advantage. Considers Decepticons a substandard challenge to his abilities-desires a match of tactics and cunning against Razorclaw where the victor wins the war over Cybertron. Has an ambush style of attack that rarely leaves his enemies the option of survival.

Start
Snarl is a technorganic lion. Mostly dark gray, he has lots of yellow and crimson highlights making him stand out much better than his Beast Machines counterpart. Snarl is articulated at the tail, shoulders, elbows, forearms, waist, hips. knees, and ankles. Turning his head makes his jaw open when facing either left or right. The panel on the upper portion of his left rear leg can slide up to reveal an Autobot logo stamped over where the Maximal Spark crystal is.

Change
Transformation isn't terribly difficult, as Snarl is your more common stand-up-and-swap-heads type of Beast era Transformer toy. Simply stand him upright, straighten his legs and flip the panels out from under his feet. Remove the tail and turn each front forearm 90 degrees. Flip the arms panels out and flip the thumbs down. The tricky part comes with the mane. Split it and swing it around back, lift up and rotate 180 degrees. Flip the robot chest forward and tuck the lion head inside. Return the robot chest to it's original position, attach the main section of the mane to the top of his head and connect the remaining halves together against his back.

Finish
Outside of the different position of his mane and the revelation of his robot mode head and chest, what you see in lion mode is what you get in robot mode. He has the same points of articulation as in lion mode. His tail, however, can be removed and used as a melee weapon that can only be held in his right hand. That hand has a peg and the weapon has the hole to insert the peg into. Sadly, he doesn't hold it too well and even the slightest bump causes it to fall out of his hands. Turning the gear on his right shoulder causes the lower right arm to move up and down in a "I'm gonna give you such a pinch!" motion. Pressing the button on his left shoulder activates his sissy-punch action. The arm extends at the elbow and not with a great amount of force. It also looks silly if his arm isn't straight. I guess he could be elbowing his opponents.

Overall
TFU Snarl is a vast improvement over the Beast Machines version in terms of color. Sadly, the poorly executed gimmicks in his arms weren't improved upon and he lacks any real character since none of the TFU toys come with bios or tech specs. So, if you don't already own the original and you like blank slates as far as Transformers characters are concerned, this repaint is worth the money.